Dundee United boss Tam Courts has defended his club’s decision to sanction a Christmas night out in Newcastle.
United will take a depleted squad to Rangers on Saturday after positive Covid cases were detected in their squad.
But the Tannadice club insist the outbreak is ‘contained’ and not necessarily directly linked to the Newcastle trip.
And Courts says United took ‘all necessary precautions’ before the trip went ahead.
“Every single decision you take within a football club now, almost has to have an element of crisis management in it,” Courts told Sky Sports.
🟠| Thomas Courts says Dundee United took steps to mitigate risk for their players who went on a Christmas night out in Newcastle👇 pic.twitter.com/bh8WSrGSbX
— Sky Sports Scotland (@ScotlandSky) December 16, 2021
“We are already in that mindset. Within that mindset, there are mitigating circumstances like ‘Do we allow them to go?’
“Yes or no? We allowed them to go.
“We then provided transport to minimise them travelling on public transport.
“The itinerary of the players was known. We knew where they were going.
“This is a flippant remark but is actually true: players aren’t the beer monsters of 20 years ago.
Courts also confirmed there have been 'a couple' of positive Covid-19 tests within his squad but expects Saturday's match at Rangers to go ahead. pic.twitter.com/3QgrSP5ZO4
— Sky Sports Scotland (@ScotlandSky) December 16, 2021
“I know as a manager I’m not going to get all the reports of what the players were up to.
“But I certainly know that there was a congregation watching the Formula One.
“I was actually partly disappointed to hear that was as much of the shenanigans they were up to.
“I can understand from a moral and ethical perspective when these questions are asked.
Tam Courts: Covid can be transmitted ‘a number of different ways’
“But on the same token, from a personal perspective I was at a Christmas market on Sunday mingling with hundreds of people.
“I actually saw three of our players there with their wives and their girlfriends there.
“These cases can come in Newcastle, they can come in Edinburgh.
“We also had that positive case within a staff member last week so potentially there are different ways this virus can be transmitted.
“But we are quite content we put in enough mitigations to allow the players to be protected but still have a bit of down time which they don’t get a lot of.”
